{"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Schaffer%2C+Alexander+S.\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Item\u0026page=7","prev":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Schaffer%2C+Alexander+S.\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Item\u0026page=6","last":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bcreators%5D%5B%5D=Schaffer%2C+Alexander+S.\u0026f%5Blevel%5D%5B%5D=Item\u0026page=7"},"meta":{"pages":{"current_page":7,"next_page":null,"prev_page":6,"total_pages":7,"limit_value":10,"offset_value":60,"total_count":69,"first_page?":false,"last_page?":true}},"data":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: Telephone Circle 7-0747 Cable Address \"Russianart\"\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.064","American--1","Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"","[double-headed eagle emblem]","Russian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York","December 15, 1941","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt,","I have just received your letter of the 14th, and hasten to let you know that the egg arrived safely.  Before I forget, my home address is: \n117-01 Park Lane South\nKew Gardens, L. I., N. Y.\nBuilding A, Apartment 2-B.","I am sorry you cannot afford to keep the red and emerald egg.  Would you kindly return the parchment #2753?  I must have misunderstood about the jade chest egg.  I am enclosing an itemized bill as requested.","The silver tray will be packed and shipped to you as soon as possible, and if I haven't sold the necklaces before the end of the year, I will return them to you.  I think I told you that I sold the bracelet and the icon.","With kindest regards and very best wishes for a happy Christmas and New Year, in which the family joins me,","Sincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]","ASS:RS\nP. S.  The parchment just arrived.  Thank you.","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Dec. 15, 1941"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1941"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":66,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1941],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.064"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e[double-headed eagle emblem]\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDecember 15, 1941\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDear Mrs. Pratt,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eI have just received your letter of the 14th, and hasten to let you know that the egg arrived safely.  Before I forget, my home address is: \n117-01 Park Lane South\nKew Gardens, L. I., N. Y.\nBuilding A, Apartment 2-B.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eI am sorry you cannot afford to keep the red and emerald egg.  Would you kindly return the parchment #2753?  I must have misunderstood about the jade chest egg.  I am enclosing an itemized bill as requested.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe silver tray will be packed and shipped to you as soon as possible, and if I haven't sold the necklaces before the end of the year, I will return them to you.  I think I told you that I sold the bracelet and the icon.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWith kindest regards and very best wishes for a happy Christmas and New Year, in which the family joins me,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eASS:RS\nP. S.  The parchment just arrived.  Thank you.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"","[double-headed eagle emblem]","Russian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York","December 15, 1941","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt,","I have just received your letter of the 14th, and hasten to let you know that the egg arrived safely.  Before I forget, my home address is: \n117-01 Park Lane South\nKew Gardens, L. I., N. Y.\nBuilding A, Apartment 2-B.","I am sorry you cannot afford to keep the red and emerald egg.  Would you kindly return the parchment #2753?  I must have misunderstood about the jade chest egg.  I am enclosing an itemized bill as requested.","The silver tray will be packed and shipped to you as soon as possible, and if I haven't sold the necklaces before the end of the year, I will return them to you.  I think I told you that I sold the bracelet and the icon.","With kindest regards and very best wishes for a happy Christmas and New Year, in which the family joins me,","Sincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]","ASS:RS\nP. S.  The parchment just arrived.  Thank you."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#62","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c63"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: Telephone Circle 7-0747 Cable Address \"Russianart\"\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c64","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.065","American--1","Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"","[double-headed eagle emblem]","Russian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York","December 30, 1941","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt,","Thank you for your kind letter and check on account.","We have just finished packing and will be out by tomorrow.  Let's hope it is all for the best!","We both want to thank you for your good wishes, and to express our sincere gratitude for having had the good fortune to acquire a friend like you.","We do hope to be able to see you every now and then.  If we go down south, we might even surprise you for a short visit.  (should we decide to drive).","With kindest regards, and very best wishes for the truly happiest New Year you have ever had, and with love from the family,","Sincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ASS:RS","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Dec. 30, 1941"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1941"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":67,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1941],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.065"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e[double-headed eagle emblem]\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDecember 30, 1941\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDear Mrs. Pratt,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThank you for your kind letter and check on account.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWe have just finished packing and will be out by tomorrow.  Let's hope it is all for the best!\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWe both want to thank you for your good wishes, and to express our sincere gratitude for having had the good fortune to acquire a friend like you.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWe do hope to be able to see you every now and then.  If we go down south, we might even surprise you for a short visit.  (should we decide to drive).\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWith kindest regards, and very best wishes for the truly happiest New Year you have ever had, and with love from the family,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eASS:RS\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \nTelephone Circle 7-0747\nCable Address \"Russianart\"","[double-headed eagle emblem]","Russian Imperial Treasures, Inc.\n\"The Schaffer Collection\"\n15 West 50th Street\nRockefeller Center\nNew York","December 30, 1941","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nBox 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt,","Thank you for your kind letter and check on account.","We have just finished packing and will be out by tomorrow.  Let's hope it is all for the best!","We both want to thank you for your good wishes, and to express our sincere gratitude for having had the good fortune to acquire a friend like you.","We do hope to be able to see you every now and then.  If we go down south, we might even surprise you for a short visit.  (should we decide to drive).","With kindest regards, and very best wishes for the truly happiest New Year you have ever had, and with love from the family,","Sincerely,\nAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ASS:RS"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#63","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    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Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Kew Gardens (New York, N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.066","American--1","Schaffer Collection","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[In process]","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Jan. 21, 1942"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1942"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":68,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1942],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["Kew Gardens (New York, N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["Kew Gardens (New York, N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["Kew Gardens (New York, N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.066"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[In process]\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[In process]"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#64","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. 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Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. 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The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. 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Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c65"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: [Royal warrant seal] \"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c66","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.067","American--1","Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"","[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"","A La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889","\nNovember 21, 1945","Mrs. John Lee Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt:","Please forgive me for not answering your letter of the 14th at once, but I wanted to receive the articles before writing to you.","I am enclosing a receipt for them.  They all arrived in good condition including the flower.","Regarding the Globe Flowers, there was one stem without jade leaves. That is the way it was made.  It is all complete so you needn't worry about it.","I am glad you like the little blue velvet stand.  I am indeed sorry that you could not manage to visit us during your last visit.  I do hope you can do so when you come again.","With kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nCordially yours,","Alexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ENC.\nASS:GMD","Cable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Nov. 21, 1945"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1945"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":69,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1945],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.067"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eA La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\nNovember 21, 1945\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMrs. John Lee Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDear Mrs. Pratt:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003ePlease forgive me for not answering your letter of the 14th at once, but I wanted to receive the articles before writing to you.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eI am enclosing a receipt for them.  They all arrived in good condition including the flower.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRegarding the Globe Flowers, there was one stem without jade leaves. That is the way it was made.  It is all complete so you needn't worry about it.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eI am glad you like the little blue velvet stand.  I am indeed sorry that you could not manage to visit us during your last visit.  I do hope you can do so when you come again.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWith kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nCordially yours,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eENC.\nASS:GMD\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eCable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"","[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"","A La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889","\nNovember 21, 1945","Mrs. John Lee Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt:","Please forgive me for not answering your letter of the 14th at once, but I wanted to receive the articles before writing to you.","I am enclosing a receipt for them.  They all arrived in good condition including the flower.","Regarding the Globe Flowers, there was one stem without jade leaves. That is the way it was made.  It is all complete so you needn't worry about it.","I am glad you like the little blue velvet stand.  I am indeed sorry that you could not manage to visit us during your last visit.  I do hope you can do so when you come again.","With kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nCordially yours,","Alexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ENC.\nASS:GMD","Cable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#65","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    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THE KING OF EGYPT\"\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c67#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c67","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c67"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c67","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.068","American--1","Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"","[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"","A La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889","June 4, 1946","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt:","The man who bought the Faberge Easter Egg which you always said you should have bought and which you didn't because I discouraged you, was in today.  He wants to sell the Egg for $12,000.00, federal tax included.","He claims that someone else also wants to buy the Egg, so I decided to let you know at once in case you are interested.  He is not in need of money so I think you could have about six months in which to pay for it.","Please do not misunderstand me - I don't want to be a salesman in this case but you did mention several times how sorry you were that you didn't buy it.  Therefore, I do want you to have a chance to do so if you are still interested.","With kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nSincerely,","Alexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ASS:GMD","Cable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["June 4, 1946"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1946"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":70,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1946],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.068"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eA La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eJune 4, 1946\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMrs. John L. Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDear Mrs. Pratt:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe man who bought the Faberge Easter Egg which you always said you should have bought and which you didn't because I discouraged you, was in today.  He wants to sell the Egg for $12,000.00, federal tax included.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eHe claims that someone else also wants to buy the Egg, so I decided to let you know at once in case you are interested.  He is not in need of money so I think you could have about six months in which to pay for it.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003ePlease do not misunderstand me - I don't want to be a salesman in this case but you did mention several times how sorry you were that you didn't buy it.  Therefore, I do want you to have a chance to do so if you are still interested.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eWith kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nSincerely,\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eAlexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eASS:GMD\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eCable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF EGYPT\"","[Royal warrant seal]\n\"BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M. THE KING OF SWEDEN\"","A La Vieille Russie\nIncorporated\n785 Fifth Avenue, New York\nEl Dorado 5-6889","June 4, 1946","Mrs. John L. Pratt\nP. O. Box 118\nFredericksburg, Virginia","Dear Mrs. Pratt:","The man who bought the Faberge Easter Egg which you always said you should have bought and which you didn't because I discouraged you, was in today.  He wants to sell the Egg for $12,000.00, federal tax included.","He claims that someone else also wants to buy the Egg, so I decided to let you know at once in case you are interested.  He is not in need of money so I think you could have about six months in which to pay for it.","Please do not misunderstand me - I don't want to be a salesman in this case but you did mention several times how sorry you were that you didn't buy it.  Therefore, I do want you to have a chance to do so if you are still interested.","With kindest regards and best wishes, I am,\nSincerely,","Alexander S. Schaffer [signed]\nAlexander S. Schaffer","ASS:GMD","Cable: Russianart, New York\nEstablished 1851\n18 Faubourg St., Honore, Paris"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#66","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. 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Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c67"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: [In process]\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.069","American--1","Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[In process]","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["May 6, 1947"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1947"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":71,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1947],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.069"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, A La Vieille Russie, Fifth Avenue","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[In process]\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[In process]"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#67","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c68"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: [In process]\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.041","American--1","Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[In process]","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Oct. 20, 1939"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1939"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure from Macomber and Company)"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["1 page"],"extent_tesim":["1 page"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":44,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1939],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.041"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[In process]\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[In process]"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#40","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c41"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: [In process]\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.060","American--1","Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[In process]","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)","title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)"],"title_tesim":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["Nov. 13, 1941"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1941"],"normalized_title_ssm":["A. Schaffer to Pratt (enclosure retirement notice)"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"extent_ssm":["2 pages"],"extent_tesim":["2 pages"],"physfacet_tesim":["Correspondence"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":63,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"date_range_isim":[1941],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.060"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection, Russian Imperial Treasures, Rockefeller Center","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[In process]\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[In process]"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#59","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"corpname_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget"],"persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918"],"language_ssim":["English \n.    "],"total_component_count_is":762,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c60"}},{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69","type":"Item","attributes":{"title":"Original envelopes (9)","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003eTranscription: [In process]\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69","ref_ssm":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69"],"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01_c69","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01","parent_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01","virmu_repositories_2_resources_8_c01_c01_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1"],"text":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Series 1: Schaffer Collection","Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence","Folder 1","Original envelopes (9)","Paper","Schaffer, Alexander S.","New York (N.Y.)","English","box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.070","American--1","Schaffer Collection","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.","Transcription: \n[In process]","In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"title_filing_ssi":"Original envelopes (9)","title_ssm":["Original envelopes (9)"],"title_tesim":["Original envelopes (9)"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["undated"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Original envelopes (9)"],"component_level_isim":[4],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"physdesc_tesim":["Paper"],"physfacet_tesim":["Envelopes"],"creator_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["Item"],"level_ssim":["Item"],"sort_isi":72,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website. "],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"names_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"persname_ssim":["Schaffer, Alexander S."],"geogname_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"geogname_ssm":["New York (N.Y.)"],"places_ssim":["New York (N.Y.)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Gift of Lillian Thomas Pratt."],"language_ssim":["English"],"containers_ssim":["box SC-07 Box 1","folder 1","Item SC07.01.1.070"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAmerican--1\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical / Historical"],"bioghist_tesim":["American--1"],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSchaffer Collection\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["General"],"odd_tesim":["Schaffer Collection","Digitization of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_heading_ssm":["Preferred Citation"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTranscription: \n[In process]\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents"],"scopecontent_tesim":["Transcription: \n[In process]"],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eIn Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["In Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#0/components#0/components#68","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:00:51.273Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_ssi":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_root_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","_nest_parent_":"virmu_repositories_2_resources_8","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VMFA/repositories_2_resources_8.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8","title_filing_ssi":"Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07)","title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"unitdate_ssm":["1901-1947"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1901-1947"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"text":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8","Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)","Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs","The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . ","The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated","The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)","Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.","A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.","The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.","The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.","The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. Gump","Richmond news leader","Richmond times-dispatch","New York post","New York Herald Tribune (Firm)","New York sun","World Wide Photos, Inc.","Akron Studios","Artvue","Eneberettiget","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections","Constance Harriet Stuart Milnes Gaskell, Lady, 1885-1964","Virginia Clarke Taylor","Fulmer, Rosamond","Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, 1884-1964","Alexandra, Empress, consort of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, 1798-1860","Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, II, 1868-1918","English \n.    "],"unitid_tesim":["SC-07","/repositories/2/resources/8"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_title_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"collection_ssim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07)"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssm":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creator_persname_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"creators_ssim":["Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?","Schaffer, Alexander S.","Schaffer, Ray","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"access_terms_ssm":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Art objects, Russian","Easter eggs","Fabergé eggs"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"extent_tesim":["1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder"],"physfacet_tesim":["723 items"],"date_range_isim":[1901,1902,1903,1904,1905,1906,1907,1908,1909,1910,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1920,1921,1922,1923,1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937,1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDigitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.vmfa.museum/archives/lillian-thomas-pratt-personal-papers-sc-07/\"\u003eVMFA Collections Search website\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research.","Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the  VMFA Collections Search website . "],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"deflist\"\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 1\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSchaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 2\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eHammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 3\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eEstate, 1932-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 4\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eClippings, 1932-1937, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n      \u003cdefitem\u003e\n        \u003clabel\u003eSeries 5\u003c/label\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eMuseum Records, 1936-1947, undated\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/defitem\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.","Series 1 Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated Series 2 Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated Series 3 Estate, 1932-1947, undated Series 4 Clippings, 1932-1937, undated Series 5 Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cbibref\u003eThe Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026amp; Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eConfessions of the Czarina, 1918\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eMother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eThe Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eEducation of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eA Princess in Exile, 1932\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eTwice Seven, 1937\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eRussian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eHandbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eSelections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003e12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eImperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewelry by Fabergé, 1953\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eJewels by Fabergé, 1954\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eFabergé Revealed, 2011\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)\u003c/bibref\u003e","\u003cbibref\u003eVirginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)\u003c/bibref\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files","Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files","Related Materials - Library of Virginia"],"bibliography_tesim":["The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress \u0026 Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917","Confessions of the Czarina, 1918","Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926","The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927","The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928","The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928","The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931","Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931","Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931","A Princess in Exile, 1932","Twice Seven, 1937","Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940","Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960","Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976","Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995","Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011","Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996","Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947","12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951","Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952","Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953","Jewels by Fabergé, 1954","Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996","Fabergé Revealed, 2011","VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé","VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas","VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eTwo months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003ePratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://www.pandora.vmfa.museum/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=6519%7bCKEY%7d\u0026amp;searchfield1=GENERAL%5eSUBJECT%5eGENERAL%5e%5e\u0026amp;user_id=WEBSERVER\"\u003eFabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.","Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' \"Russian Imperial Exhibit\" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.","Source:  Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"],"custodhist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.\u003c/p\u003e"],"custodhist_heading_ssm":["Provenance"],"custodhist_tesim":["The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eLillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eA large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Note"],"processinfo_tesim":["A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content Note"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003eCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License\u003c/a\u003e. The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Publication"],"userestrict_tesim":["The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a  Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_fb5f9a7488efeca094913bc14bf01383\"\u003eThe collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer."],"names_coll_ssim":["Fabergé (Firm)","Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920","Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876? -- Art collections"],"names_ssim":["Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives","Schaffer Collection","A La Vieille Russie (Firm)","Hammer Galleries","Virginia Museum of Fine Arts","Fabergé (Firm)","United States. Internal Revenue Service","B. Altman and Co.","Miller and Rhoads","Lord and Taylor","J.E. Caldwell and Co.","Parker and Wakelin (Firm)","James McCutcheon and Co.","S. and G. 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